A Seamless Path for Families

Autism Navigator® is teaming up with FIRST WORDS® Project to improve early detection of autism. Our Seamless Path for Families offers 5 online resources for families.

Families may be invited by their doctors or healthcare providers for universal screening with the Smart Early Screening for Autism and Communication Disorders (ESAC) beginning at 9 months of age and they are invited to be re-screened every 3 to 6 months until 30 months of age.

Families who screen their child with the Smart ESAC will be invited to our parent portal where they can access the online resources in our Seamless Path for Families, based on their child’s screening results.

If your child is between 9 and 18 months of age, we invite you to participate in our research and have your child screened online with the Smart ESAC. You can access it from anywhere anytime. Look for the Screen My Child button at FIRST WORDS® Project.

For all families—the 16 by 16™ Lookbook series helps families and others learn critical social communication skills that children should reach by 16 months to help your child learn to talk.

For all families—explore video clips to learn key social communication milestones that develop from 9 to 24 months and chart your child’s social communication development.

For families of children with a positive screen for autism—to learn about the early signs of autism with video clips of over a dozen toddlers with ASD at 18-24 months of age and see early intervention in action.

For families of children with a positive screen for autism who want more information—see hundreds of video clips illustrating diagnostic features and many different interventions.

For families who suspect their child has ASD— get started right away, learn intervention strategies to use in everyday activities, and support your child’s learning and development.

Brought to you by FIRST WORDS® Project:

Did you know that all children should have 16 gestures by 16 months? The 16 by 16™ series is designed to help families and others learn critical social communication skills that children should reach by 16 months in order to launch language learning, literacy, and much more by 24 months. This series of online Lookbooks illustrate with photographs each of the critical skills to provide a roadmap for families to monitor their child’s early development and celebrate these important small steps your child is making. This information can help families notice small delays early in order to prevent bigger delays later and give all children an edge before preschool to better prepare for success in Kindergarten.

Most parents and professionals are familiar with early motor milestones— when infants learn to hold their head up, turn over, sit up, crawl, and walk. However, few parents or professionals know the key milestones of social, communication, and language development. Yet these milestones offer a critical window into an infant’s well being and are the earliest signs of healthy development and school readiness. These Growth Charts are available free to families who have been invited by their doctor or health care provider. Parents can explore our side-by-side video player to see video clips illustrating 80 social communication milestones that develop from 9 to 24 months of age in 5 different domains. You can watch the clips again with narration to see how you can support your child’s development. You can chart your child’s development and celebrate these early critical steps as you watch your child grow. The Growth Charts offer an unparalleled video library of hundreds of video clips of typically developing infants and toddlers interacting with their family in everyday activities. This information will help parents be better equipped to monitor their child’s development and to share and express concerns with your primary care physician, if your child has not yet met expected developmental milestones.

Brought to you by Autism Navigator®:

Our first online course free to the public is for families, professionals, or anyone interested in learning about autism spectrum disorder (ASD). You will learn about the core diagnostic features and early signs of autism in toddlers, the critical importance of early detection and early intervention, and current information on prevalence and causes of autism. This self-paced course has video clips of over a dozen toddlers with ASD at 18-24 months of age. It takes about 3 hours to go through the slides and videos, or you can spend a few minutes and visit again later.

The ASD Video Glossary is a web-based tool built to help families and professionals learn more about the early signs of autism. This tool was developed by the Florida State University Autism Institute in collaboration with First Signs and Autism Speaks and has been available to the public free of charge since 2007. The Glossary contains more than 100 video clips illustrating the diagnostic features of ASD. Side-by-side video clips show behaviors that are typical in contrast with those that are red flags for autism. The Glossary also contains over 100 video clips to illustrate different common treatments available for children with autism. The ASD Video Glossary has been brought into the Autism Navigator collection and updated both in content based on the new DSM-5 diagnostic framework and in technology for accessibility on mobile devices.

This interactive web-based course is for families who suspect their young child has autism or a social communication delay. It will put in the hands of families hundreds of video illustrations of evidence-based intervention techniques you can implement in everyday activities to support your child’s learning as soon as you suspect autism. This interactive program will teach families how to embed strategies and supports into everyday activities, provide developmental growth charts to help families recognize and monitor meaningful outcomes, and offer a video library to illustrate how to promote learning and development for young children with ASD. This How-To Guide for Families will also be instrumental for early intervention providers to use with families to improve outcomes of young children with ASD and their families.